Yes, today was an interesting day. Guess what? It's Friday! (Naruto!) And more importantly, the next Friday is coming in 6 days!

Flemming's Right/Left Hand Rule can be used for many things, apart from those mentioned in the Pysics notes.

1. The strongest weapon you can use while playing "scissors, paper stone!" (my favourite game). It wins everything. Not even the Right Hand Clasp Rule can beat it (a thumbs-up sign). Therefore, Flemming's R/LHR is the secret success strategy. To be precise, the Left Hand Rule is the best because it isn't the one you use for induced current. See, physics is so fun.

2. Use it to be cool. I think I will not elaborate on the "how" part. Vivienne has successfully re-enacted Monday's unfortunate Physics Peer Tutoring WS encounter every day, from Monday to Friday.

3. For thinking. When you are intending to go "hmm", conveniently flick your right hand (left, if your're left handed) into the RHR shape, then slowly but smoothly curl it around your chin. Optional: give a wise look, like you're awaiting sacred enlightenment. Credits, my desk partner.

4. This was shared by Chandini, I think. When you feel like sticking out your middle finger offensively, think twice. There's a less harmful method, and that's substituting the action with the RHR.

5. Machine guns. Using both the RHR and LHR, wave your arms up and down and dramatise with sound effects. I'll stop here. The list is endless.

During A Math, we were doing the work on Geometrical Proofs (I think that topic doesn't like me). I was discussing question 8 with jy, complaining to her about the answer key not allowing me to use another method of proving that would save one line of the exercise book compared to the suggested answer. Jy tried asking Mdm Y, but of course she failed to ask properly because she was laughing half the time, I mean all the time. Oh yea, before I continue, I have to tell you what happened before that.

Before that, Jy suddenly turned around and asked something like, "Do we prove that this times that equals that times that?"

Vivienne and I: Huh? What thumbtack?!

Jy: *looks puzzled*

After a few seconds, we finally knew what she was talking about. "times that" = thumbtack. So from then on, we kept annoying her by asking her how to prove one thumbtack was equal to another thumbtack. As a result, she couldn't stop laughing. It was worse than before because much of the day was already spent laughing until we were tired.

So it was in that context that Jy tried asking Mdm Y about my complaint. Unfortunately, her laughing disorder got the better of her. Then came the hilarious part, Mdm Y: TAN JIE YING I AM WAITING FOR YOU (to finish laughing). Hahaha

I went to see the doctor today to draw another sample of blood for the Thalasaemia test. I ended up getting poked by the needle 2 times. The last time I got a needle poked in was last Saturday, so there was still a minor blue-black on that part of my arm. The doctor tried to use another vein that was beside it so as to allow that vein to recover. The needle went in (it was an ow moment, but it wasn't unbearable). The doctor tried collecting the blood, but no blood flowed into the tube at all. Then he tried poking it further in, but it didn't work. Then he tried pulling it back slightly and poking it in different directions to search for the vein. I was slightly horrified at the sight. In the end, he gave up and pulled the needle out. Then he had to take another tube and stick the needle into my left arm. Thankfully, he managed to collect the blood easily. But still, instead of one arm of throbbing to bear with, there are two. And because of the freshly-made holes, I decided to call off my swimming plan.

Yay, Thursday is going to be over. That means Friday is coming. On the other hand, it means there are another 7 days to the next Friday.

Thursday is a highly dreadful day, especially today. There was chem SPA and music composition prelims to deal with, and 2 hours of higher chinese test for people like jy. My brain cells are currently replenishing their stock.

Chem SPA was ok, and I can't elaborate further. But at least, there are no more SPAs for the rest of the year. I don't know if that's worth celebrating, because there's still a whole list of papers to sit for in about 13 weeks. Vivienne was panicking, and infecting me as well. She started off her day sian-ing and scaring me. It got better after a while, but at the end of the day, she suddenly went back to the sian mode. I didn't get my 20 minutes of panic today because I thought Chem SPA was at least an hour away when it was actually immediately after math. By the time I realised and wanted to panic, the bell had gone off and it was time to get into the Chem mood.

For music prelims, we were given around 2.5 hours to complete our composition. I still don't understand why we can't bring in our work and type it into the computer directly. It's more troublesome when I can only know what it sounds like overall and the shape of the melodic lines. If I knew how to play my accompaniment and memorise it from there, life would have been easier. I tried, but I spent 20 minutes figuring out how to play the first 2 bars of my accompaniment. In the end, I gave up and decided to focus on Chem. So during those 2.5 hours, I just typed in whatever I could remember, and improvised from there. Surprisingly, 2.5 hours was just enough for me to complete everything I wanted to type in, including performance directions. That means 4 hours for actual O level should be a breeze.

After music, almost everyone looked very accomplished and happy. A long and tiring Thursday was finally over. If not for pure humans to look forward to tomorrow, I would have thought today was Friday. We arranged to meet ms tan on Saturday and thanks to ruri and jy, I recieved my much-needed dose of Totoro at the canteen piano.

My medical report is out. I wonder if anyone can actually walk off with a perfectly normal record. It seems impossible to me. When a patient is normal, his/her reading is between 5-95% of the total range. That means if the report reflects a LOW, that means you are the bottom 5%, or if it is high, you are the top 95%. I got quite a few of these, which aren't really good. The test uncovered quite a few things.

First, my suspected thalassaemia minor (blood condition) was detected, and I'll probably go for a confirmatory test soon. That was reflected in the blood test section, where some of the blood counts were not "normal".

Next, my cholesterol is low. We usually hear of people going crazy trying to keep off high cholestrol, but low cholestrol can be as dangerous too. Mom says it means malnutrition. Even my grandmother thinks I look malnourished. But I don't think so. I eat 3 meals a day, and people in school can testify that I eat rice, meat and vegetable for recess/lunch. Low cholesterol could also indicate a liver disease, and it's linked to stress, anxiety and depression (suicide). But I don't think my life is sad at all.

Also, something called bilirubin is higher than normal. It's about 50% higher than the highest in the normal range, and it scares me. It's a bile salt. Too much of it indicates a liver disease or a blocked bile duct. I've never heard of anything good about livers malfunctioning. It's usually a hopeless situation. The doctor suggested an ultrasound scan of the liver. Mom says the liver is very important, better check. It's not cheap scanning. But it's not that I hope they find something wrong just to make it worth while..

Lastly, the known fact, my blood pressure.

Thanks to the BP test in school, I discovered so much about my seemingly healthy body. I'm still trying to accept facts, but it's hard to believe, especailly when I don't see symptoms.

As I'm typing this, I'm keeping my composition playing in on the com at "repeat" mode. I'm worried I can't remember every single note I notated. I have a contingency plan, but it will not give me every note I want. Sigh... The sad life of a music student. I think people who take music spend much more time on it compared to other subjects. There are so many components that require a long term commitment. Music happens to fall on the same day as Chem SPA, which results in my divided attention.

I'm reluctant to use Flemming's Right Hand Rule (the first three fingers on your right hand, positioned 90 degrees apart from each other) now. During Physics peer tutoring yesterday, I was trying to adjust my Right Hand Rule so that it could fit the correct direction. It ended up with my right hand awkwardly placed on the table and my body bent down towards the right so I could see my fingers from a side view. Vivienne happened to walk into class from the back door and immediately thought I was trying to the "yo" type of action, with style. She spent 5 minutes laughing and trying to get over it. Unfortunately, it wasn't permanent because she suddenly started laughing during English today - because the scene kept replaying in her head. Therefore, from now on, I will use Flemming's RIght Hand Rule very discretely.

My nose is running and I've been sneezing. I think they are considered flu-like symptoms, except, I'm short of a fever. I don't think it's anything to worry about, though. I went swimming just now so it's a likely cause.

A sudden enlightenment. I think I'm going to forget about my music compo until SPA is out of the way. Anyway, O level is more important than a prelim coursework. I'll just have to spend more time on it next week, memorising.

I just realised my previous post fell under "Sunday". It was supposed to be about yesterday. Probably because I uploaded it past midnight. I ended up sleeping at 1am, which is rather unhealthy. I have to work my way towards 10.30pm, then hopefully, 10pm. Prelims are coming soon, 2 September (doesn't this just look like a cinema ad?).

Today was another great day. Sometimes, I find myself measuring the quality of the day by how much I have accomplished. That means, today was good because I learnt a lot.

After Sunday school my family and I rushed off to the Bukit Arang church so that dad could arrive just in time for the service. We were there more like to give moral support and provide constructive feedback on his sermon. I never fail to panic for dad because of his Chinese. My Chinese isn't that fantastic either, but still, I hope he finds the right word. Jean and mom, on the other hand, are linguistically inclined. It's known as a Gene Package (I'm kidding; I don't do bio). I took on most of dad's genes, but they also came along with malfunctioning Chinese genes. Jean took too many language/humanity genes from mom and that aptly explains her math.

While on the way home, I heard Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the radio! I think Jean got infected by my liking for that piece. We had to get out of the car soon, so she quickly plugged her earphones into the handphone and tuned in to 92.4. I shared her earpiece so that I could get as much of the music as possible. We had to practically hobble all the way to the door, then bend down together to take off our shoes, then get up slowly, the open the door etc etc. Just a slight miscalculation and either party's earpiece would get yanked out. It was just when we painstakenly stepped into the house that it suddenly occured to Jean that she could have turned on her speakers. Going to such great lengths just to appreciate Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Mozart's 12 variatons. By the time she got her speakers on, I had already blasted the house with TTLS using the sound system. That was nice.

I spent the afternoon working, all the way till just now. Mostly on music. There's this sentence in the notes on Haydn Studies:

Haydn started giving piano lessons to Rebecca Shroeter, attractive and well-to-do widow of the composer and pianist Johann Samuel Schroeter, with whom he had an affair.

It's misleading because whenever I first look at it, I have to remind myself that Haydn is not doing anything weird, and hence he should not have to join the list with Tchaikovsky in it.

On the bright side, I'm more or less complete with prelim coursework. Now I have to learn how to play my piano accompaniment and memorise it.

I'm not going to go about listing whatever work I did today, in case I unintentionally stress anyone out. Just refer to the links on the right if you ever find the need to get an adrenaline rush. I need to get off the com now. I've been on it for 5 hours. My eyes are going to protest soon.

Today was a nice day. I woke up early to do some of my work before going to see the doctor. I drank 7 cups of water (7 x 300ml) within an hour. There were two main reasons - first, to make myself less hungry from having to skip breakfast, and secondly, to feel a bit healthier before the test. I had to do urine collection. Quite erm.. interesting, but involves great skill. I'm not going to elaborate further. Then the doctor drew some blood from my hand. I watched the needle poke it's way into my vein. It seemed unbelievable at first because if I ever did something like that, it would end up looking like a murder scene. Not that it was my first time, but the last time my blood was collected was about 10 years ago. My BP is still as high as before.

Went out with parents for lunch, accomplished a mission (shopping today), then church. After church, jy's dad picked me up. Jy and I went for a concert at ACSI, string ensemble. Chandini should have come. They sounded good, better than most ensembles. When, and will smss strings reach that standard? Time will tell..  It does take some time to build up a string ensemble, so I'm not expecting a miracle to happen overnight. It's even harder when there's a small pool of talent.

Anyway, they played John Rutter's Suite for Strings too (our SYF piece). Of course, it had good intonation and style. But I think it's common for string ensembles to want to play the piece super fast. Not a wrong interpretation, but those who play it at that speed have to posses the skill to do it musically well. It's just like if you want to speed while driving, you can, but make sure you have the skill to drive safely and not get caught.

Thanks, jy, for the invitation. I think you have finished reading the program booklet and laughed over it, or maybe still laughing. I hope it wasn't your bedtime story though.. And yes, school concerts aren't that bad after all. It was good music.

There was only 1.5 hours of lesson today. In actual fact, 0.5 hours. During English, Jie Ying and I spent our time slacking away by volunteering our free table disinfection service in class. We didn't get stopped by Mrs S, so we carried on walking around the class until about 10 minutes before the 1 hour lesson ended. What's more, it was group work and since our group already finished our work, we could have a nice chat among ourselves. After that, it was pure slacking time (pure humans) for a whole hour. It was spent composing in the ITR. I am so bored of elaborating. The point is, some troublesome people left the computers and monitors on and we spent quite a while trying to shut them down. Ended up having to run down, which is bad for old people, (got poked by joan halfway) just in time to greet Mdm Y.

Today was my first time attending Speech Day. The next time I might attend it would be if I get more than 5As for O levels. It was intimidating, yet inspiring seeing many ex-sec 4s dressed in the green gown. All of them did rather well for the exams, so that's why they're there. Now I know why they want to make all graduating classes watch it.

-deleted a whole chunk of rant-

I'm starting to get the overwhelming feeling when the tasks I have to complete start piling up. I hope tomorrow will be a better day. But first, there'll be a health check to contend with in the morning. I've to fast until I see the doctor. That means a late breakfast, which is like some sort of jet lag condition. Tomorrow will be a better day.

I've never been so kiasu in my life, well, at least, as far as I can remember. This morning, before setting off for school, I reminded Jean to bring along her entry proof (I nearly forgot mine was sitting on my table until I happened to see it). She wasn't old and ageing like me, so she already remembered. Then she reminded me to bring 2 pencils. I laughed it off at first but changed my mind soon after because I feared Murphy's Law would start acting up. But come to think of it, I only shaded 10 tiny ovals, and it didn't even make my lead 0.5mm shorter than its original length. What's worse, I didn't even get the chance to use that pencil. I bet Jean didn't either.

LC turned out to be pretty alright. Vivienne and I were having our routine panicking. After comparing my answers from a few sources, I think I got 90% right, which is my modal score. Jean started lamenting about how she got the first question wrong when she /nearly/ got it right. Ah well, at least we're even for now.

I enjoyed the music before the exam started. Popular Classics was on, and true enough, I could name almost all the pieces played. I also felt happy when they mentioned Vivaldi being known as the "Red-haired priest" during one of the musical bites. There was some sense of achievement because I learnt that during music last year and it managed to be retained in my long-term memory. But I doubt they'll test that for O level anyway. Like how they don't test if we know that Tchaikovsky was gay, Haydn and Mozart playing around with other women, or Brahms "stealing" Robert Schumann's wife.

The solar eclipse today was barely noticeable. If not for the sudden uproar in the classroom block, I would have forgotten all about the special occassion. But too bad, the whole class was stuck inside doing the New South Wales paper while other levels got to scramble outside and take a look. Even Mdm Y ran out but claimed that she was only trying to see why it was so noisy. Haha.. But I don't think they got to see much, especially with rain and cloudy skies.

No violin lesson today. Yay! I should be getting to work now. It's highly unsual of me to get on the com before I'm done with my work. But since I'm done with Chinese for a while, I deserve this moment. On the bright side, I have bubble tea to look forward to when the dear Jean comes back home.

Today is Racial Harmony Day, the day Singapore commemorates racial harmony after the racial riots in 1964. Just look at all the violence in other parts of the world. It's evidence that they just can't tolerate each others' differences. The current unrest in China between the Hans and Muslims is a timely example.

I wore an ethnic-looking shirt today with jeans. It was a decision made only yesterday after being influenced by jy. I ransacked mom's closet and asked her to recommend a shirt. This was my first time wearing something ethnic for Racial Harmony Day in school. I didn't really see many younger students wearing it. The sec 4s turned out to be the most enthusiastic level. More than 75% of my class dressed up. It's the time when you realise you're ageing and want to make the most out of your last year in this school. Occassions in school like these which used to bore me out suddenly became for precious. Ah well, only people my age and beyond will understand. Anyway, there were fun memories. Oh yea, I have to add that it was super hot (temperature). I was almost melting away.

Another thing peer pressure did to me yesterday - going for prom. JY got "threatened" to go for prom, and then dragged me along. I originally intended not to go. Haha.. This reminds me of what Mrs S once said something like, "if something better comes along the way, I may just go along." Well, I'm not exactly sure how this is exactly related, but anyway..

Jean's seniors are having it at Shangri-la hotel. Man... That's called class. Never mind. It's not that it really matters to me. I thought proms were for mixed schools, but of course, it isn't. And I just realised that only all-girls schools have proms and not all-boys schools. (correction: they do) I still find it hard to imagine the other scenario..

I went to the doctor after school today with the intention of having a basic check up, but it turned out that I had to fast the night before and go down in the morning. I guess I'll have to wait till Saturday. However, managed to get my BP checked again. It's still higher than normal. Around the same as last week. Have to monitor closely and go back to the doctor in 2 weeks. Sigh...

Could moon landings have been faked? Some still think so

I found the theories of those against NASA's moonwalks rather influential, but I don't think I'd believe them. It's really a pity for those who don't believe in it just because they didn't get to experience it first-hand. Even pictures won't convince them because they'll simply say they were hoaxed. That's a pretty sad life because they'll never be proud of human achievement. Some things in life are hard to believe, especially when we don't get to see it "live", but that's where faith comes in. It's invisible, but it's what keeps us going.

Greening the Internet: How much CO2 does this article produce?

It was just interesting reading about IT carbon footprints. We usually hear about gas emissions from cars etc. Sadly, reading about this isn't going to make me cut down on Internet usage. Look at page 252 (somewhere in the chapter -  Air) of the chem textbook. I agree with that theory.

 

I've been doing quite a bit of research on BP for the past 2 days. I really find it hard to believe that my BP can be high when I don't even have any of the common causes. According to my results on Thursday, I'm on the high side of the high-normal range, and slightly into stage 1. I wouldn't trust a self-diagnosis, but it should be somewhere around there. I'll probably see a doctor next week. Oh and typing of doctors, my next ear check is in about 2 months.

It's been a surprising week.

Today's Thursday. I have the urge to put down the a standard part of a conversation I have every Thursday.

E: Guess what?
L: What?
E: It's THURSDAY!
L: Which means
E: tomorrow is Friday!
L: Which means
E: NARUTOOOO
L: Which means *smiles broadly*
E: *sigh* 6 more days to next Friday...

Today, cleared Physics SPA. It was kind of what I expected, so I nearly caught myself smiling when I looked at the description of the experiment. One of the rare SPAs that feel closer to a spa (the one that people go to every few weeks).

Oh and Vivienne was at it again. She started making me panic around 2 hours before the SPA. Actually, we take turns to panic. She panics around 2 hours before, while I start panicking 20 minutes before. However, by the time I start panicking, she's already cool as some cucumber.

The rest of my day went downwards after the health check up. My back is negative, so I was spared from having to take off my shirt. My eye test didn't do badly enough to be referred to an optometrist. My blood pressure test was the one that didn't turn out good. After taking the first reading, the nurse asked me if I just went for a run. I shook my head. After taking the second reading, she asked me if I was feeling excited about anything. Well, no, unless it's something like SPA? After taking the third reading, she told me that my blood pressure was above the normal pressure. I was quite shocked because I thought HBP was only for older people, not people like me. The nurse asked her colleague to test my blood pressure again. I went over and had a total of 6 tests. I saw the mercury level in the meter and it went up to around to around 130-140 (I didn't manage to see it just now). The healthy range is below 120. The nurse advised me to eat healthily and exercise, basically, live a healthy lifestyle.

Ever since hearing that shocking news, I haven't felt like a normal human. How could I possibly have HBP. I'm still young, I still have many things I want to do. As of what I know, I exercise, though not too frequently, eat healthily, and my parents don't have HBP, and I'm not overweight or anything (if I still remember my Home Econs work).

6 tests are enough to prove that my blood pressure is high. I even saw it for myself. Sigh.. That means I have more chances of getting a heart attack or stroke, at a younger age. Now mom has an excuse to ask me to sleep earlier, drink more water, go jogging with her and dad on saturday mornings. I think I'm going to have to make some changes to my lifestyle if I want to survive a little longer. I'll probably have to go do a proper body check up soon.

HBP doesn't occur overnight. But uncovering the hard truth today made me feel different from 1pm and backwards. I hope there's a chance I'll return to normalcy. I'd rather have low blood pressure. At least I don't have to die of a heart attack. It's still hard to believe I'm getting this problem at my age.

Today, Mdm A talked about the plight of people in LDCs (less developed countries). It is true how nowadays, people from DCs just focus on getting the best bargains from the poor labourers there. Whenever I go somewhere like China or Thailand, haggling is key. However, I'm not saying that haggling is bad. While the goods in such countries are cheaper than those on our shelves, most of them are greatly over-priced. Hence, it's ok to bargain a bit, but just not to the extent of squeezing out every cent from the poor seller.

I didn't exactly gain any new insights from today's lesson, but it reminded me of my holiday to Hoi An, Vietnam last year (try reading archive June 2008). I don't think i recorded this incident.

We were walking around the Hoi An town area, where most of the people living there brought their goods to sell. The products were mostly handicrafts and other cheaply-manufactured goods. We walked around and decided to buy some stuff. I was very interested in the haggling thing but of course, my unsociable self didn't allow me to communicate with the stall holder. I got dad to help me bargain because the toy I was looking at was definitely over-priced. As usual, his attempt was successful. When I converted the price to S$, it was worth the cheapest ice cream you could find here.

After a while, I asked him if the price he got the toy for was worth it. He replied that it wasn't, and what we paid was much more. After all, it was just made of wood and painted by hand. I continued asking him why he didn't bring the price all the way down when he definitely had the skill to. He finally gave me another of his moral education lectures. That day, I learnt that other people also needed to eat. So what if we could have saved a few cents from that purchase? We didn't get any poorer. Giving the lady selling the product that extra few cents could make a difference between having food security the next day or the lack of it. Evidently, I was quite oblivious to the less fortunate people around me.

To all Singaporeans, yea, it's alright to bargain, but just don't go overboard.

Tomorrow's the hc audition. I was busy debating with myself whether to drop out of it or not. If I were to go, I'd only be wasting my time and would probably end up embarrassing myself and my school. If I don't fall sick tomorrow, I'll go, and try to have fun while at it.

I'm glad to announce that my will I wrote last night doesn't have to be used - yet. I didn't die of Ck's sandwiches. Actually, I used Joycelyn as my personal lab rat. She innocently took out a slice and started eating it. I leaned forward and watched carefully for any adverse reactions. I bet Ck was nervous. Once I saw that the experiment didn't reflect any negative results, I started on my sandwich. I hereby officially award her an "A" for her better-than-subway sandwich.

The cycling plan started from Ck and her sudden crave for cycling. She got me infected and I decided that I really wanted to go cycling as well. Joycelyn.. poor her, she got dragged along. We decided to go to East Coast Park for cycling in the afternoon. Joycelyn had 3 students less today so she could finish earlier.

We rented our bikes near Macs. I rarely explore that part of East Coast Park, partly because my parents prefer to have their headquarters at the hawker centre. There was the usual weekend crowd to contend with, but it got better as we cycled along the more ulu parts of the park. I saw a few weird sports going on. Times must have changed. There was this parachute thing that has a surf board attached to the bottom via a rope line. So the person wake boards using the wind energy. There were also some kids playing with some new, latest skateboard, the type that is hard to fall over on and can be detached. However, I find it quite slow, less thrilling and less technically demanding compared to the original skateboard. There was also a guy riding a bicycle with 4 small wheels in the front. There were also other weird things going on but the list would be endless. Weird right? Or is it just that I'm getting old and becoming less able to keep up with the changing times?

We cycled around along the track which led us to the extreme end of East Coast Park. Even there, we didn't stop and continued venturing through the park connector into Changi Beach Park. That park was mainly an 8km stretch of straight road that ran parallel to the Changi Airport runway. While cycling, we could enjoy watching planes take off. We didn't know whether or not to turn back, but in the end, we cycled all the way to the end, from the end of the runway to the back of the airport terminals. We took a short, really short break of buying drinks before going back to East Coast Park. That was another 8km back.

Ck, the photo-sensitive one, was probably the only one who had some source of motivation to cycle faster. Whenever she was directly under the sun, she would cycle faster to avoid looking like a kicking cooked lobster. That left Joycelyn and I behind trying to catch up. But of course, once we were in a shady area, she would lack the spirit of determination and start lagging behind.

While on the way back to return our bikes, we stopped by at some slabs of cement to rest for a few minutes. I had a bad butt-ache and my thighs were starting to hurt. While cycling, the wind became unusually strong. This was bad because more wind meant more resistance. When the wind became too strong, resistive force = applied force and there was no resultant force. No matter how hard we cycled, we couldn't move forward much = no work done. The wind didn't die down at all. In fact, it became even stronger. I think those people cycling in the opposite direction had a good time because the wind was pushing them along.

Joycelyn was a useful meteorologist. She calls it cloud watching. She predicted that it was going to rain, and it did. I could see that visibility was poor a few km out at sea, which meant it was raining there. And going by how strong the wind was, it wouldn't be long before the wind blew the storm cloud over to East Coast. We were currently on our long return journey. We cycled quite far out and had to retrace that in order to return our bikes. We were in a mad rush to cover as much distance as possible before the rain came, but the wind was so strong that it was hard to go fast. Eventually, it started drizzling. It became a heavy downpour almost suddenly. All the shelters were swarmed with people and bikes. Every second out there made us increasingly soaked. We finally squeezed into a shelter and waited for the rain to die down a bit.

We ventured out a few minutes later despite the rain and continued our journey (to the east?). The wind didn't get any better and so our thighs were really tortured. My bike gear didn't seem to be working and it was at high gear all the time. That meant a lot of force was needed for one cycle. We finally reached the bike rental shop and returned our bikes. My, the sensation when you get off the bike... Couldn't even walk properly.

We practically hobbled over to Macs to rest for a while. The feeling when we sank into the plastic chairs there was - shiok. Good thing it wasn't cushion or we'd have been stuck there for a very long time.

We then flagged a taxi to go to Tanah Merah. Getting out of the cab was a chore. It's the feeling you get when you have to wake up for school early in the morning. You have to, but it's almost some sort of irresistible temptation to continue staying put. I nearly had a tragic accident while climbing over a curb. My brain was still calculating bicycle wheel heights and so I lifted my leg too high. Careless mistake. I almost fell and that sent Ck and Joycelyn in to a laughing fit.

In total, we covered about 50km in 3 hours of cycling. It was tiring and fun. Felt quite healthy after that. I hope my legs survive tomorrow. I hope I don't crash onto the floor while trying to get off my bed tomorrow.

I'm bored. Guess what? It's Friday! (E: naruto!!) To a majority of sec 4s, it means less teaching, more time for self-study at home. Everyone has more or less started their o level revision. Depending on your revision status, click on the new links at the top right hand of the page.

While in the canteen before music, ruri, megan and I went to explore the new piano installed at a corner of the canteen. It was like some "baby upright" (I derived that from baby grands). There were only about 5 octaves, 2 pedals and I felt tall standing next to it. I think students are just going to destroy the piano sooner or later, worse than what they did to the one in the hall. I predict Jie Ying is going to be inspired to spend her free periods polishing the canteen piano soon. Oh and her next appointment with the hall piano isn't too far from now. And talk about the school trying to prevent H1N1 from spreading. Putting up the new exercise machine and the piano there is just making things worse. Any student who touched anything before could touch the structure, then more students would follow suit. Just imagine the multitude of bacteria and germs infesting the piano. Sure, it's a good idea to put an interactive exercise machine and a piano for every one's entertainment (or in some cases, the torture of every one's ears), but maybe not if they still want to uphold their H1N1 measures.

I've been advised to write my will in case I die of eating Ck's sandwiches tomorrow. Here goes:
Err.. I don't know. I don't even have much property to give away. In case I die, I'll return everything I own to my parents. Just cremate me or if possible, donate my body parts for useful purposes. And thanks to everyone who helped me along at any point in my short life. Oh yea, and please get on with life.

Typing that reminded me of the Michael Jackson memorial service. There were many people who said great things about MJ and thanked him for all the wonderful memories and contributions to the world. The only thing - MJ was gone.

That brings me to my next point - the book, Tuesdays with Morrie.

Morrie had a better idea. He made some calls. He chose a date. And on a cold Sunday afternoon, he was joined in his home by a small group of friends and family for a "living funeral." Each of them spoke and paid tribute to my old professor. Some cried. Some laughed. One woman read a poem:

"My dear and loving cousin ...
Your ageless heart
as you move through time, layer on layer,
tender sequoia ..."

Morrie cried and laughed with them. And all the heartfelt things we never get to say to those we love, Morrie said that day. His "living funeral" was a rousing success.

Only Morrie wasn't dead yet.

Few people die without regrets. I don't think I'll ever arrange a "living" funeral for myself. I think it's more important to live every day like a "living" funeral. That way, we appreciate others better and can live our life without regrets.

I was so tired today, but that doesn't mean today wasn't a nice day. PE was fun, especially after doing nothing but napha practice for the last term. But after all that fun, I got very sleepy for the rest of the day. Thankfully, there was no Chinese intensive, but that meant I had to stay back to do work until it was time for violin lesson. Violin lesson was tiring because I was quite tired already.

I spent time watching the Michael Jackson memorial stuff on TV. I only realised he was a really fantastic singer when he passed away and numerous clips of his performances started popping up. I think people in my generation did not really know him much. During my time (yea I sound very old), I only knew about his molestation charges and plastic surgeries while watching the news. His singing was unknown to me, though I'd occasionally hear people talking about his moonwalks. Since last week, I heard recordings of his performances and really, he's a great singer. If only he survived his next 48 hours, I might have been able to see a better picture of him during his comeback concerts.

On the other hand, for people in my parents' generation, they seemed more hit by the news. Mom read almost every article on him on CNN and made dad record his memorial service early this morning (1.30-3.30am). MJ was probably one of their most important icons.

It's interesting how music can link people all over the world. Just look at how MJ's music made many people around the world gain inspiration, from aspiring singers to basketball players.

Or maybe it's celebrities that link the world. MJ does not know everyone, but almost the whole world mourns his death. To quote something I heard on TV, "the celebrities become intimate strangers."

I'm not a crazy MJ fan, but I think he was a brilliant singer. You rarely find such technically-good singing these days. Mostly, it's just young people yelling their heads off and rotating between the few musical arrangements they can think of.

While I seem to be in some unsual-liking-for-pop-music state, I still prefer to be interested in the music of Bach or Beethoven, where music sounds more sound for my conventional hearing.

Chinese oral today - and there was no mention of any angsana tree. That's cus last night, while chatting on the phone with nai nai, we were talking about my orals the next day, and she suddenly asked me if I knew what "angsana tree" was in Chinese. She probably got that idea because she wanted me to watch the 华文？谁怕谁！on Channel 8 on Sunday (probably because she knew my Chinese was the canoot-make-it type and thought watching it would help spark some interest) but I was out at town until quite late with my family. As expected, I was clueless. Like, the last time I said "angsana tree" must have been at least 6 years ago for science. Then again, that was the English version. 3 seconds after she told me the answer, I had already forgotten what the Chinese name for "angsana tree" was, but of course, I didn't tell her or else I'd get a long lecture. Therefore, thankfully, no angsana tree.

Panic is contagious. Seeing Vivienne panic the whole morning inevitably made me scared. I had to occassionally confiscate her practice materials. But in the waiting room, it was my turn to panic. It didn't help when someone left the examination room crying while I was sitting outside. The passage was quite easy, and most of the harder words were easy to pronounce because I'd seen them being used in church countless times. The conversation was based on 整容 - plastic surgery. At first I thought it meant something like facial, but I managed to steer myself to the correct direction in time. The bad thing was that whatever most people studied (blogs, internet, strawberry generation, olympics, environmental conversation) didn't come out at all. Even the words I checked up from the past 10 years (times 10 days) of passages didn't appear. Therefore, in conclusion, studying for oral only helps to calm your nerves. Other than that, don't expect too much out of studying. Anyway, what's done is done.

As a "celebration", went to macs with zeng xi, ariela and hui lin - the bridge-addicts. Played a few rounds of bridge before going home. The "lunch" at 5pm left me not hungry for dinner.

Today's youth day, which means one more day for self-study for most people. What's worse, I still have to spend the day worrying about Chinese oral tomorrow. Now's half-time for me. I still have a load of things to complete before the end of today.

Today, Jean's friend came over for cycling. They returned before lunch and wanted to go out to Macritchie for dunno what. The point is, Jean wouldn't be eating lunch at home. Unfortunately, there was a hopeless cook at home, sitting by the piano and trying to complete music homework. I made her help me set up the oven before she left so that I could load in my pizza when it was done preheating. She was also my helpline later when I didn't what to press on that oven.

I had a fear of operating the microwave oven after I accidentally microwaved a pie on a metal rack (not too long ago). I was the only one at home. Halfway, I smelt something strong but not too disgusting coming out of the oven, so I thought it was the pie that was just aromatic. But when I saw that the oven was quite smokey, I decided to halt the microwaving to see if anything was up. Too my horror, smoke started filling the kitchen and I was almost scared to death. My first reaction was to drag a ladder to take down the smoke alarm and switch it off in case it ever saw the need to disturb the neighbours. The pie wasn't burnt but it was very, very hard. Then I had to clean up the aftermath and try to get the smoke out of the house.

When I told mom what happened, she was stunned at my lack of cooking skill. The problem: I thought I was supposed to microwave the pie with a metal rack. It was supposed to be using some baking function. I didn't believe mom when she told me at first. I thought microwave ovens were idiot-proof. However, when I flipped through the chem textbook a few days later, it stated that microwaving metal could cause the microwave oven to catch fire or explode. Gah... How does everyone know that, except me?

I used the convection thing as Jean instructed, but I put the pizza in and out of the oven at least 5 times to cook it at 1 or 2 minute intervals because I was paranoid of cooking the technologically advanced way. Another thing I need to do after O levels - research on cooking.

H1N1 is really interesting. I agree with Professor Lee Wei Ling (MM Lee's daughter). Singapore should let H1N1 in to build herd immunity. The virus should be in the process of mutating either now or soon, so Singaporeans should just get themselves immune to the more deadly virus by suffering a minor flu for now. Besides, the flu can be passed around very easily, and temperature screening cannot sieve out all cases. I like this logical idea.

The whole week in school was made more interesting by H1N1. First, E invented a new name for it, by pronouncing it as "Hiney" - which also refers to your rear end. Next, every class was assigned to sit at specific tables during recess. But the tables had an average capacity of 6 seats, and each class had about 3 tables, and 1.5 if the class you happened to be sharing with had the same recess time slot. But there are always ways to get around the rules. So some people in class started sitting at the 3E5 table, and whatever classes they were in during their sec 1/2 years.

The school sounded a lot like a shopping centre. There were rather frequent announcements over the intercom, with the introductory tune. One particular announcement yesterday sent classes all over the classroom block through a roller coaster of anticipation.

Mrs T: "Due to the increasing spread of the H1N1 virus, the school has decided..."
Everyone (silently): "no school, please, no school, NO SCH.."
Mrs T: "to implement some measures..."
Every one's heart sank.
Mrs T talked about improving some social distancing thing. The school wanted to minimise large scale gatherings, so the plan was to allow some classes to spend their recess in class. That meant eating in the classroom.
The more enthusiastic top half of classroom block cheered (lower sec).
Mrs Tan: "Only upper sec classes will be among those chosen..."
*Bottom half of the block cheers* The top half was probably still trying to absorb the shock.
The rest of the class selection announcement was mainly accompanied with screams from various locations around the bottom half of the block. It sounded like imitation (a compositional device I learnt in music). Anyway, 4/5 was selected. Next week is going to be another week to look forward to.

Jean and I realised at 2pm that we were the worship and pianist respectively today. That meant 2 hours to get ready. And considering how lousy I am at the piano... Ok I shall not dwell on that sad fact. Captain's ball today was tiring but fun. I met Elena (a 92-batch senior from strings) while walking outside church to eat dinner. We go to the same church building (sometimes, because she usually goes to the other branch), but she's from the English assembly, and I'm from Chinese. Siling, I'm ready to challenge you for the biggest brain! Dad's speaking at church now, mom is there too, moral support? So there are 2 kids at home succumbing to computer addiction.

Today

Jean started asking everyone during dinner if they had any idea about the significance of this month and some of its days. Her question was more like a statement because she started rambling on and on about what I extract from her blog below. All of these special occassions are only applicable to USA.

Did you know July is Anti-Boredom Month? It's also...

• National Ice Cream Month
• National Baked Bean Month
• National Blueberry Month
• National Hot dog Month
• National Recreation Month
• National Picnic Month

I found it hard to believe, but there are days like

• Cheer up the Lonely Day
• Cow Appreciation Day
• National Cheesecake Day
• National Mosquito Day

Today is Build a Scarecrow Day.

The only thing that is slightly applicable to us - today is International Joke Day! After Jean said that, mom immediately asked if whatever she mentioned on top was a joke. (In case anyone was wondering too, no, it wasn't)

In conclusion, every day is a special day and there's always something to treasure. Make every day a great day.